Be Not Weary

Be Not Weary.

Yes! He knows the way is dreary,

Knows the weakness of our frame. 

Knows that hand and heart are weary

He, 'in all points,' felt the same.

He is near to help and bless;

Be not weary, onward press.

Look to Him who once was willing

All His glory to resign,

That, for thee the law fulfilling,

All His merit might be thine.

Strive to follow day by day

Where His footsteps mark the way.

Look to Him, the Lord of Glory,

Tasting death to win thy life;

Gazing on 'that wondrous story,'

Canst thou falter in the strife?

Is it not new life to know

That the Lord hath loved thee so!

Look to Him who ever liveth, 

Interceding for His own:

Seek, yea, claim the grace He giveth

Freely from His priestly throne.

Will He not thy strength renew

With His Spirit's quickening dew?

Look to Him, and faith shall brighten,

Hope shall soar, and love shall burn;

Peace once more thy heart shall lighten;

Rise ! He calleth thee, return !

Be not weary on they way, 

Jesus is thy strength and stay. 

~Frances Ridley Havergal

Taking My World Apart

In 1995 the band Jars of Clay released their first album. On that album is a song called "Worlds Apart". This song became my prayer. I couldn't listen to it without tears. I identified so closely with it. I had been a Christian for a few years at that point, and if i knew anything, i knew that God needed to strip me of my selfishness and pride. Strip me of who i thought i was. Strip me of what i allowed myself to be identified by (which was everything but HIM).

 Over the last 18 years, i have continued to pray this prayer, with this song. It is still raw. It still moves me to tears at times.

 The past month has seen my world turned up-side-down. Last week, this song came to my mind. All of a sudden, i realized that my prayers were being answered. God is taking my world apart. He is completely undoing me. "Providential destruction" as i heard it called. I am being completely undone by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is a good thing. Jesus Christ really did have to die for me. He purchased my pardon at Calvary... ALL of my debts. there is nothing i can do to add to the work of the Cross.


 Well, here is a live version of the song. it is about 5 minutes long.


 

Plenty of Promises

click on the picture
to purchase a copy!

I am reading this book right now (pictured at right). It's an old puritan book from the mid-1600's. It is chock-full of the promises of God to His people. It is challenging me more than i had anticipated, and causing me to see that some things had been stuck in my head, and were having a hard time making their way to my heart.

The reason they couldn't get into my heart fully? fear.

Here are some of the amazing truths (from pages 2 & 4):

• God comes with "plenteous redemption" for me, wretch that I am. (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.)  
• God will be (and is) mine. (Jeremiah 32:38-40)
• He is my refuge and my rest (Psalm 90:1; 46:1)
• He is my heritage and my hope. {whoa.} 

All of these things are true for you too, if you are in Christ. I am personalizing them for me, because i am simply trying to get them to penetrate my heart. 

Living Love Together

Friendship.
That can be a loaded word.
Good memories, bad memories.
Having friends. Not having friends. not having as many friends as we want to have. not having our friends do what we want them to do, be what we want them to be, or say what we want them to say.
Not being a good friend.

What if friendship is more than we have thought or experienced?

Christ says in John 15, to His friends (and us),  that He has loved us with the love that the Father has loved Him with. Take a second to think that one through. The Father loves the Son perfectly. He loves Him without fear, without reservation,  without thinking of His own needs first.

This is the love that Christ loves us with. He loves us perfectly. He loves us without fear, without reservation, without thinking of His own needs first.

but wait...

Christ commands us in John 15:12-14 ~  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

He tells us to love each other the way that He loves us. He doesn't command us to love the way we have been loved by our parents, or our siblings (if you even have one), or our friends. NO. He tells us to love each other the way HE loved us.

okay.

this is a whole new way of thinking. 

We must look to the Author of love, to learn how to love. Our Pastor, Dr. Jeff Rich,  preached a wonderful sermon on this last Sunday. I believe it is a message for The Church at large, and not just for our local church. You can listen below... some of the thoughts in this are from that sermon.

Christ loved deeply. He loved fully. He loved sacrificially. He loved freely. And He says that we are His friends if we do what He has commanded. Have we realized that He wouldn't have needed to command us to love each other if it was easy? hmmm.

I am really thinking about how we tend to view friendship. We tend to use the world's measuring stick, don't we? You have me over, i have you over. You scratch my back, i scratch yours. But what happens when we do something for someone, and they can't do it in return?  We tend to react like the world. ouch.

Christ calls us to love each other, not as the world loves, but as HE has loved us. He gave everything, even His life. Are we willing to die for each other? Are we willing to die to ourselves in order to love each other? One thing i think we forget, is that the world is watching us, Christian. They are watching how we love each other. They are watching when we complain about love costing us something. They are watching what we post on facebook.  They are looking to see if we really are different. Are they seeing a difference? i am asking myself this question. 

So, how do we love each other in friendship, the way Christ loves us? First, we have to be so confident in Christ's redeeming love for us, so hid in Christ, that we are doing things for others out of the overflow of love with which we have been loved (not out of a place of fear, or so that we can get something in return).

Next, we have to give that love to each other. freely.

what does that look like? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Here are some things i have thought of, on how we can practically live this out (no, it isn't always easy):

• bring a meal to a person who isn't well
• send a note of encouragement (snail mail)
• have someone from church over for a meal (make a new friend!)
• be available to listen when a friend is hurting
• pray for each other
• do fun stuff together
• be accountable for Bible reading 
• meet someone for coffee
• offer to help in some way
• show up... be there. It is hard to grow friendships in church if we don't take the time to consistently show up.
• don't hold on to offenses 
• be quick to forgive
• speak the Truth in love
• share your story (as scary as it is sometimes)
• be willing to be messy with each other
• take off the masks
• cry with each other
• laugh with each other
• sing together :)

This is a hard command, but one that we can fulfill if we are committed to Christ! His Holy Spirit will empower us to love each other, as we have been loved by Christ! 

We are in this together, working it out as we go :)

I have a long way to go with this, for sure. These are my initial thoughts as i have thought about the sermon on loving each other. We are human, and will love imperfectly, thus the need to be quick to forgive. Yet, we CAN love. I know i am thankful for all the friends who love me in the good and in the messy :)

I welcome your thoughtful comments, to make this a conversation :)

Forsaken no more

i grew up listening to Don Francisco. Went to a concert when i was in 5th or 6th grade. His music resonates with me in a way i can't explain. He sings the Word. i heard this song today as i was playing a disc. i can't pick a song that pinpoints what things were like for me growing up better than this one, and the love and security and redemption i have in my Heavenly Father. 

this is why i cry when i hear or sing: 

• of His great love for me. 
• of how He will never leave me.
• of how He will never let me go.
• of the security i have in Him. 
• of what Christ did to redeem me.
• of how much of a Father He is. 

Truly, God will never forsake His own. He will never reject. He will never leave. Praise His glorious name!

Thoughts about Here

Here. 

it is where i am.

where i live. 

it is home. 

not always home, 

but sometimes. 

but

is it only a place,

or is it much more? 

is it our state of existence? 

we say we can be here, 

but not really "here". 

what does that mean? 

except that here can be 

a physical reality, 

or

a mental state, 

or

.....

here, 

for me, 

is where i am, 

right at that moment. 

home, 

for me, 

is not a place, 

but people. 

Now that i have totally confused myself, 

i am outta here  :) 

something that happened today made me think of this... of here and home.

feel free to comment (~;

The Real Deal, Baby

i am an emotionally intense person. this is not a bad thing, it's just who i am. But, until recently, i thought it was a bad thing. We all get a little intense when talking about things that are important to us, but some of us are intense about everything! I would be one of them.

this is why i can cry most every time i sing Amazing Grace and And Can It Be? It is why i laugh easily and cry easily. i, like one of my sweet daughters, feel everything with every fiber of my being.

i still cry during Wall-E. every.time.
i still cry watching Pride and Prejudice...for the umpteenth time. (Oh, and Facing the Giants, too).
i cry during a cheesy, old, love song.
i cry reading missionary biographies.
i cry reading practical Christian living books. (okay...i have even cried reading the descriptions in the Vision Forum catalogue sometimes). 
i cry listening to God's Word preached.
i cry reading God's Word.
i cry listening to a friend share her heartache or her deepest joys.
i cry when i think of how loved i am by my husband.
i cry when i realize how loved i am by God, my heavenly Father.

i think you get the picture. i cry. A lot. Tears of sadness, understanding, joy, thankfulness, etc.

BUT....

i also laugh. often. and easily.
i laugh during Wall-E. every.time.
i laugh listening to cheesy, old, love songs (especially when i look at my 13 year old's face).
i laugh reading missionary biographies.
i laugh reading practical Christian living books.
i laugh with joy sometimes when reading God's Word.
i smile from ear-to-ear when worshiping.
i laugh with my friends, at their stories.
i laugh with my husband.

I used to think being this way was a weakness. Now i can see it as simply the way God fashioned and formed me...i am, after all,  fearfully and wonderfully made...we all are! (see Psalm 139).  i used to think that if i cried when trying to explain a sermon or a song i heard, that i was too emotional, or too weak. I would try to justify my tears, justify my emotions, like i was on trial. Now i can see that it is the way i was wired....The promises of God are precious and true, living and active. i have been rescued from great darkness, and when i hear something that reminds me of the depth of His amazing love, i am still floored.

We are not all wired the same way :) and we don't all respond to things the same. Trust me, i know.  i married and Englishman. I am Italian. We are a bit different (~;. But i am done trying to hide my  tears when they are flowing. i am embracing how God has made me. He made me an intense person, emotionally. And that is wonderful.

May He use it all to His excellent glory.

Recognizing Healthy

so, i grew up in some craziness. no news flash there.

i have been on a journey for years on the path of wholeness and well-being (emotionally).

God has been faithful to bring clarity, healing, purpose, and worth.

Sometimes we don't know how far we have come until we are thrown into situations where we can either shine or shrink back.

Yesterday and today i was given the opportunity to see just how much God has changed me. let me just say, normal reactions to difficult situations are wonderful. i don't know how else to word it. To NOT ride the emotional wave that was being thrown at me was wonderfully freeing. this wasn't the first time i have had my mettle tested, but i have now seen a consistent pattern of being able to withstand, in Christ, these interactions. i am learning to recognize "healthy"!

i know that this probably seems pretty vague, but i don't feel the need to share every detail anymore. some things are just meant to be kept quiet, protected. 

All the glory to God alone, for great things He has done!! 

A Reversible Confession

source

okay. i have a confession to make. I have just learned how to use a reversible belt. i am 38 years old.

About a month ago, i purchased a reversible belt for $20, instead of paying over $40 for two belts: one black and one brown. Feeling pretty good about saving some money, it never dawned on me that i didn't get how it worked.

Once home, i was playing with it, trying to figure it out. To my dismay, i realized that i must have purchased a broken one, because there was no way to turn the buckle part around to get it to flip. I sadly put it back in the bag, knowing that one more trip to the store was needed.

Later that night, i confessed to my hubby that i had to take my new belt back, since it was clearly mislabeled and was not reversible. With a smirk on his snerk, he took the belt, pulled the buckle a bit, and then, amazingly, twisted it around  (you can see how it twists in the pic if you are like me and didn't know)!

IT WORKED!

I literally stood amazed that he knew how to do it. He felt pretty good, and i had found, once again, a hero in my husband. He also saved me vast amounts of embarrassment, being that i didn't have to go return the silly thing. i can only imagine what the clerks would have said upon my exiting the store! 

i have lived for this long having no clue how reversible belts worked!

wonderful little things.

the strange part? almost every time i put it on (which is every day), i am still baffled at how cool reversible belts are.

Short trip to happy? YOU BET (~:

What is the Truth?

1. I am struck by Mark 4.35-41: 

 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

1.  Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

2. What is the situation or the circumstance you find yourself in? What storm is filling you with anxiety, fear, or despair? When we look at this account in Scripture, we can see and almost feel the disciples fear of perishing in the storm. Where is Christ? Right there with them! What is he doing? He is sleeping! So what was the truth of their situation? THE TRUTH was asleep in the back of the boat. He was at perfect peace, knowing that they would make it, and that His Father was in control of everything. He rebuked the waves and the wind, and displayed His glory to the disciples. 

How does this apply to you and to me? Well, when we are in the midst of a trial, we can cling to the bedrock of Truth that God is in control. Christ is not up there wringing His hands, as it were. He is there. With His perfect peace. With His awesome salvation. Through all the difficulties we face, God uses them to draw us in, to form our character, to reveal His heart. He uses them to draw us more deeply into His Word. He shows us His love through the Bible and through His people. Wow. 

Thinking of the great hymn It Is Well With My Soul has helped me have more clarity in this. We are told to give thanks in EVERY circumstance, and sometimes, quite frankly, that is just too hard to do. In those moments i have called out and said "Lord God, please show me something that i can give you thanks for in the midst of this difficulty." He is faithful to bring to my remembrance the gift of salvation i have through Christ Jesus. No matter what happens around me, i know that it is well with my soul.

If you are facing a challenge that seems to be too great for you, press in to Christ. Find a way to praise Him, even in the pain... This hymn is one of many that we can sing in the midst of great trials, because, if you are in Christ, the TRUTH is that it IS well with your soul, and that is always reason to rejoice. 

1. 
   
2. IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
3. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
   When sorrows like sea billows roll;
   Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well, with my soul.
   • Refrain:
     It is well, with my soul,
     It is well, it is well, with my soul.
4. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
   Let this blest assurance control,
   That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
   And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
5. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
   My sin, not in part but the whole,
   Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
6. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
   If Jordan above me shall roll,
   No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
   Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
7. But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
   The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
   Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
   Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
8. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
   The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
   The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
   Even so, it is well with my soul.
9. ~Horatio Spafford (STORY of this hymn here ...scroll down and the story is at the bottom )